Category: Walt Disney World’s Hotels

Long gone are the days of using a physical key to get into your hotel room…especially at Walt Disney World’s hotels. Believe it or not, guests staying at Walt Disney World resorts will soon be able to use mobile phones to open their hotel room’s doors.

Today, people who stay at Disney resorts have to use MagicBands – electronic wristbands that store every guest’s travel data – to get into their rooms. MagicBands not only allow guests to enter their rooms, they can also be used to get into Disney’s theme parks, pay for food & merchandise, and use FastPasses.

Disney will first test this new mobile-key program at the Wilderness Lodge resort near the Magic Kingdom. Once they’ve got all the kinks worked out of the system, Disney employees will begin offering this feature at all of its other resorts.

In addition to unlocking hotel rooms, Disney executives want to extend this digital key service into other areas of their hotels. Eventually, guests will be able to use their phones to get into exclusive areas like resort pools and special lounges.

Even though customers can’t use their phones to get into their rooms just yet, Disney already released a new service that allows guests to check in to their hotel online. Once the room is ready, Disney employees send out a text message to let guests know they can enter their room with their MagicBands.

There’s no word yet whether Disney is planning on introducing this phone-key feature to its other theme parks or cruise line.